Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Tapioca Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the tapioca overnight in water to cover.
Make the cream
In a double boiler, combine the soaked tapioca and milk, and boil for five minutes.
Stir in the egg yolks and sugar, and let it scald.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Flavor with vanilla extract to taste.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tapioca
- Swells during soaking and boiling to thicken the milk into a creamy pudding.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base that the tapioca thickens into a cream.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the cream and help it set smoothly as it scalds.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and adds body to the custard base.
- Egg whites
- Beaten to a froth and folded in, they lighten the texture of the cream.
The step that matters
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air when beaten, and vigorous stirring deflates them. Folding gently keeps the air in, so the cream stays light instead of dense.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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